Museum of Pell City

Years of effort pay off with early 2023 opening

When the doors open to the new Museum of Pell City in early 2023, the journey to that pivotal point cannot be measured in steps or miles but in a vision and outright determination.

“It represents a group of people whose love of history and preservation never wavered along the way despite the twists and turns of the road to get here, and it will be an historic day for our community because of their perseverance,” said Museum President Carol Pappas.

When the ribbon is officially cut, the community will welcome a museum that exceeds the expectations of cities of comparable size. It features the local exhibit from mill town to global marketplace and so many people, places and events in history in between.

Local exhibits from the Smithsonian tour are being adapted for the museum.

The Making of Alabama, the state’s bicentennial exhibit awarded to Museum of Pell City by Alabama Humanities Alliance, showcases Alabama’s 200 years of statehood and beyond. Within that exhibit are artifacts and little-known nuggets of Pell City history weaved into the story that unfolds.

 Just like the whistle that sounded the beginning of shifts at Avondale Mills, formerly Pell City Manufacturing, at the turn of the 20th century, the museum will have its own replica of that whistle at the entrance to the exhibit, signifying the start of a new day.

Museum cases, made possible through gifts from citizens, are full of artifacts that bring the stories and photos of Pell City history to life. Hundreds of old photos are accessed on computer tablets for each period of history. A simple swipe across the screen reveals photo after photo of the days that were.

An interior room has been built to house music history, art and sports, and the national impact of Pell Citians on all three.

Another section tells the story of service with organizations and individuals dedicating themselves in public service, military and civic arenas.

The county exhibit that Miss Mays pioneered is featured as well as the places where memories were made – hangouts like the Rexall Drugs, Skad’s, Jill’s and Dairy Queen.

Alabama Power Foundation partnered with the museum on a project to build a working dam model to take visitors behind the scenes of Logan Martin Dam and the impact it had on the region. A $45,000 grant from the Foundation made the stunning exhibit possible as well as other aspects of the museum.

Pell City is no longer a mill town, and the Global Marketplace reflects exactly that – the evolution of Pell City as a player on the world stage in business.

The centerpiece of the museum is a Living History Studio, which will be used to record and produce oral history videos designed to capture recollections of events, people and places in history of the community.

A mobile video team will be dispatched on location for those who cannot travel, and a special project involving veterans of three wars – World War II, Korean and Vietnam – will make use of a partnership between the museum and the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home in Pell City.

A control room adjacent to the studio is planned as a working classroom for students to not only develop an appreciation for history through work with these oral histories but to hone skills in video production, audio, lighting, interviewing and research.

Lawley is spearheading the ongoing program.  “Since 1968, when my husband, Barnett, brought me to Pell City, I have been enriched by tales of an agricultural area with a Mayberry-paced town where everyone set their watch by the mill whistle. How quickly it began to transform with the damming of a river,” she said.  “We are losing the voices that make you smile, laugh, cry or reflect with their wonderful stories. Our goal is to have a living museum; the oral histories will provide that feeling before more are silenced.”

From ‘what if?’ to ‘where and when?’

Museum of Pell City was a vision long before this 4,000-square-foot suite became its home. That vision took many forms. The late Mary Mays, long known as an advocate for historic preservation, spearheaded a movement to place museum cases full of artifacts in the county courthouse in Pell City.

Others worked toward restoring the Mays House in Cropwell. Still others created April Walking Tours of historic downtown Pell City.

Another group brought the Smithsonian and Alabama Humanities Alliance exhibit, The Way We Worked, to Pell City in 2014 at the Center for Education and Performing Arts, CEPA, and created an impressive local history exhibit. That display, melded with the Smithsonian’s exhibition saw more than 7,000 people tour during its three-week stay.

It is widely viewed as the spark, a tipping point that caught fire and convinced a grassroots group that Pell City could indeed have its own museum. “So many people who toured that exhibition approached us about establishing a museum,” said Pam Foote, who served as project director of The Way We Worked. “It was gratifying, yes, but it also represented a huge hill to climb.”

There was no place to house it. How could a single exhibit grow into a museum?

So, Foote and Deanna Lawley, co-chairmen of the 2014 event, along with Pappas asked the city to store it, realizing it could be the nucleus of a museum. For seven years, it remained intact in the basement of the municipal complex while they pushed for a home.

They enlisted Jeremy Gossett, a local businessman with a deep love for history and an extensive background in set and museum design, to bring the vision to life. He had assisted on the design of the 2014 Pell City Works exhibit. “We are so fortunate to have someone of Jeremy’s caliber, talent and creativity working with us,” Pappas said. “His work is truly amazing.”

There was talk of locating it in the long vacant administrative building, the single structure still standing on the Avondale Mills property, and that course was pursued for a few years. After the Pell City Library moved into its new quarters in the municipal complex, that vacant building was seen as a temporary solution on location. The group pursued its prospects as well.

Then, Councilman Jay Jenkins had an idea in 2021, and his ‘what if’ turned into the museum’s home – two floors up from its storage in the municipal complex. The museum occupies a massive suite on the second floor.

“The city has been a terrific supporter of this museum,” Pappas said. “We couldn’t ask for better partners than the mayor, city manager and council. They provided us the space, infrastructure support and best of all, moral support for this project. Without them, we never would have made it this far.”

After the public ceremony officially cutting the ribbon Museum of Pell City, plans call for the museum to be open Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and by special appointment for groups.

Community walking trail opens at Lakeside Hospice

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by David Smith
and Carol Pappas

Dr. Alex and Janis Miller were never strangers to giving back to their community. They still aren’t.

In 1991, they founded Lakeside Hospice, a not-for-profit organization to care for the terminally ill, and they dedicated themselves to it financially and physically for the first years of its existence.

Dr. Miller has since passed away, but his legacy of giving back has taken the form of a community walking trail that bears his name. The winding trail outside the hospice headquarters on Alabama 34 in Pell City is “open to everyone. Everybody is welcome,” said Paul Garing, executive director of Lakeside Hospice, moments before cutting the ribbon on it.

It truly is a community gift to share, he said, noting that the entire community is welcome to not only walk there but “to hold events and fundraisers and further spread the word of Lakeside Hospice.” It was built from a vision to promote healthy living.

Miller served as the nurse on call 24/7 in those early days of hospice, and husband Alex served as medical director. It was the first not-for-profit hospice in Alabama, and that meant personal sacrifices of time and money to keep it going. “It was about Alex’s dream and what he wanted for his people – good, decent care to terminally ill patients,” she said.

And three decades later – “as long as we’ve been in business, it’s the same quality,” she said. “I’m so proud of our hospital, staff, volunteers and board.”

The trail, built by FlowMotion Trail Builders of Alabama, features a meandering path around the property as well as a fire pit to be dedicated to Dr. James Tuck, the current medical director. Mrs. Miller along with the Daniel Foundation financed the project.

A monument and sign honoring Dr. Miller welcomes one and all at the trellis entry to the trail.

The things we lose and long for

Life is fickle and unpredictable. It is forever changing.

Sometimes it’s quiet, subtle shifts we barely notice. Sometimes our whole world changes in a heartbeat  of a second. Either way, life changes every day, and we lose a lot along the way. We lose belongings, people and places. We lose love, memories and time. We lose ideas, dreams and our perspective.

Some losses are slight, while others are so big they become a personal measure of time – marking beginnings and endings of certain chapters in our life.

Some losses slip by unnoticed, while others we never fully recover from. We carry some voids with us forever.

The Portuguese people have a word for this that tenderly ties of these feelings – “Saudade.” It’s a rather elusive word that helps give a voice to that melancholic yearning for something that once was but never will be again.

I believe it’s these losses – the ones we grieve and still long for despite the passage of time – that define us. If we look closely at the things we miss the most – the things our heart longs for – I think we will find a part of ourselves in the void. To paraphrase Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov: Tell me what you miss, and I’ll tell you who you are.

(* The featured photograph is of the charred remains of the home of Phillip Hyatt and Tim Bennett of Steele. They lost their beloved hilltop home and all their belongings to a house fire on July 4, 2022.

I asked them to share with me what they found they longed for most:

Phillip, whose parents originally built the home, said his thoughts returned most often to a photograph of his parents (both now deceased) that hung outside the master bedroom since the house was first built.

“It was the heart of the home,” Phillip said.

Tim, practice pianist and music collector, lost instruments and decades of treasured memorabilia. “It was a lifetime of music I lost,” Tim said. “I miss that the most.”)

– Mackenzie Free –

Wife, mother, photographer & current resident of the unassumingly magical town of Steele, Alabama

Honoring Bill Ellison

231 bridge named for visionary developer

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Graham Hadley

When you travel over Pell City’s William C. Ellison Bridge on U.S. 231 over Interstate 20 in years to come, no need to wonder who that namesake might be.

It is hard to look around Pell City and not see a connection to Bill Ellison, even if you’ve never met him. The legacy of his work may be in the grocery store you shop, the mega retail center where you buy clothes, gifts and products for your home or business.

Ellison devotes his talk to the ‘team’ that made the development a reality.

Find it in the hotels where family and friends may stay while visiting or watching a movie at the cinema. The connection is there even when you sit down to eat at a restaurant, enter your favorite fast-food drive-through or fill up your vehicle with gas.

Over the past four decades, Ellison has been the visionary who saw needs in his adopted, beloved hometown of Pell City and blazed many a trail to fill them. A developer by trade and serving as president and CEO of I-20 Development, make no mistake, it’s more than a job to him. It’s a passion.

With dozens of developments throughout the city to his credit, generating 40 percent of the City of Pell City’s tax base, the Ellison connection reaches well beyond those brick-and-mortar testaments to his success stories. Consider the beneficiaries of that burgeoning tax base – schools, roads, law enforcement, infrastructure. The sweeping connection to him in all corners of the city is unmistakable.

As city, county and state officials gathered in September to herald the official beginning of yet another development – a 147,500-square-foot shopping and lifestyle center – they seized the opportunity to give Ellison a lasting thank you.

Unveiling a sign that bears his name was the perfect tribute – William C. Ellison Bridge, connecting the Walmart Supercenter development on U.S. 231 North that sparked Pell City’s largest retail growth with Pell City Square, a 19.5-acre development that takes that growth to the next level.

The link that connects them is Ellison, whose dogged determination brought both projects to fruition. The first started with a convenience store, a gas station and a vision. Now, it’s a sprawling retail, hotel, entertainment and restaurant district.

Cross William C. Ellison Bridge, and the property that once housed only a county hospital and acres of woodland will be home to nationally familiar names like T.J. Maxx, Hobby Lobby, Old Navy, Ulta Beauty, PetSmart and Five Below. And there’s more to come along with those.

Ellison is quick to point out that it’s not a one-man show. He often talks of “team” and “we,” deflecting the credit and the spotlight to others.

“Really, it’s we, not me,” he told the gathered crowd. “I’m just a team player.”

Visibly moved by the bridge name unveiling, he added, “Being recognized by my peers, family, and friends today is the highest honor of my 40-year career. This bridge symbolizes how past, current, and future administrations can all work together to create incredible projects for the community.”

Mayor Bill Pruitt described Ellison as a visionary who “sees what Pell City could be,” noting a long list of developments behind which Ellison was the driving force.  “Who is Bill Ellison?” the mayor asked. “He is truly an unstoppable force. He has left an indelible mark on Pell City and St. Clair County.”

Pruitt noted how far the city has come in terms of growth since Ellison’s first development across the interstate. “It’s a short trip from where we were to where we stand now.”

And the William C. Ellison Bridge now connects them both.

Building Pell City

Big things happening: Breaking ground on massive retail development

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Graham Hadley

When ceremonial shovels hit the ground, sending symbolic dirt flying, it signaled a new level of growth for Pell City and St. Clair County.

It has been a long, tough road, but three years later, Pell City Square, a 147,500-square-foot retail and lifestyle center is now official. Officials broke ground Sept. 8 on the 19.5-acre site fronting I-20. It closed the chapter on another historic groundbreaking – St. Clair Regional Hospital decades ago – and opened a new one on the future of the ninth fastest growing city in the state.

It will include retailers Hobby Lobby, T.J. Maxx, Ross Dress for Less, Old Navy, Five Below, Ulta Beauty, PetSmart, Rack Room Shoes and other retailers not announced yet. They describe it as a multi-use lifestyle center, which includes outparcels for such developments as sit-down restaurants and is the largest retail investment announcement in St. Clair County since Springville Station Shopping Center in 2005.

Not COVID, not complex partnerships, legal red tape nor any other hurdle would stop this partnership of Noon Real Estate, St. Clair County Commission, City of Pell City and the St. Clair County Economic Development Council.

St. Clair Economic Development Council Executive Director Don Smith talks about Ellison’s contributions as Mayor Bill Pruitt (left) and City Manager Brian Muenger listen.

“They never stopped working,” said Don Smith, executive director of St. Clair EDC. “They banded together to keep moving forward.”

“I share Don’s excitement,” added Pell City Manager Brian Muenger. “This day has been coming for so long. The mayor and council were unwavering in pushing this project to completion.”

In 1968, officials were celebrating the laying of the cornerstone of St. Clair County Hospital. The county’s population stood between 26,000 and 28,000. Today, it tops the 95,000 mark. Pell City was a community of 5,000 people. Today, 15,000 call it home.

“We’re growing,” explained Muenger, and needs change. City officials kept hearing from citizens that they wanted “to keep their dollars here. This shopping center is going to do exactly that.

Muenger talked about the impact of a massive shopping center on a city the size of Pell City, benefitting schools and providing funds for infrastructure to better serve its citizens. “This is a great day for the city. It took a lot to get here.”

Located at the corner of Interstate 20 and U.S. 231 South, it will sit on the site of the former hospital. The property came under ownership of the St. Clair County Commission and the City of Pell City in 2011 to enable building Ascension St. Vincent’s St. Clair, a state-of-the-art hospital just across the interstate.

After years of planning and negotiation, officials agreed to highest and best use would be negotiate an agreement with Noon Real Estate, a seasoned development firm with plenty of retail experience. The goal was to bring in name brand retailers to keep shoppers in the county rather than spending those dollars elsewhere.

“The county commission has a history of supporting our communities to create new tax revenues and jobs in St. Clair County,” said Commission Chairman Paul Manning. “We believe this project will allow us to continue to grow St. Clair County’s economy while filling a retail need in the community.”

Retail Development Layout – Image courtesy of Pell City

Muenger agreed. “The construction of the Pell City Square development is transformational for the city and its residents. The addition of these national retailers will provide our citizens with more options to shop locally than ever before.”

“It’s been four years in coming,” said Noon Real Estate President Kevin Jennings. He thanked “the team” that made it happen, but he singled out a key player that provided the spark. “It all started with Bill Ellison,” who met him at a shopping center convention in Las Vegas to pitch the benefits of locating in Pell City. “Here we sit seeing this happen. Come back next fall and bring your credit card.”

Jennings’ partner, Jamey Flegal, said Ellison’s “vision and passion sold us on it,” and he credited another key player with closing the deal – Council President Jud Alverson, who pored over the numbers to ensure the deal not only could happen but would benefit all involved. Calling him “a rock star,” he said the city should be proud to have him in leadership. “It is rare to have leadership understand the numbers.”

Metro Bank is handling the financing for this project, and Smith lauded the bank’s involvement. “They are an incredible asset to this community.”

He also thanked attorneys John Rea of Trussell, Funderburg, Rea, Bell & Furgerson and James Hill of Hill, Gossett, Kemp & Hufford with helping the team over all the legal hurdles en route to the historic groundbreaking.

In another historic move that day, officials unveiled a new sign for the I-20 bridge connecting the northern and southern sides of the interstate as William C. Ellison Bridge.

Mayor Bill Pruitt talked of Pell City’s “great potential” and how “Bill Ellison saw that.” To Ellison’s credit are developments leading to the commercial district anchored by Walmart Supercenter, the South Park Shopping Center anchored by Publix and now, Pell City Square. Those developments generate 40% of Pell City’s tax revenues.

Humbled by the recognition, Ellison said, “I put my heart and soul into my work every day because I love Pell City.”

The Looney House

Efforts begin to save one of St. Clair’s most storied structures

Story by Robert Debter
Submitted Photos

The story of the Looney Family, among the first settlers in St. Clair County and one of the oldest in state of Alabama, begins over 200 years ago on the high, east bank of Tensaw Lake, which had been from an old channel of the Alabama River at a place named Fort Mims.

Remaining structure after the fire, below

The fort began as the fortified plantation of early settler Samuel Mims and consisted of 17 buildings, a blockhouse and a log palisade.

Following the victory of the Red Stick Creeks at the Battle of Burnt Corn Creek on July 27, 1813, over 500 settlers from the surrounding area sought refuge at the fortified home. Maj. Daniel Beasley and 70 volunteers of the Mississippi Territorial Militia were sent to garrison the fort, while another 100 volunteers were sent to other nearby posts and forts.

At noon, on Aug. 30, Red Stick warriors, led by William Weatherford, or “Red Eagle,” assaulted the haven by rushing though the fort’s open gate and firing through the gun ports. Maj. Beasley and his militiamen fell during the first part of the enemy’s attack.

It fell to Capt. Dixon Bailey, a Creek, and his force of Americans and Creeks who repelled the hostiles for four hours. The battle ended when the fort’s buildings were set ablaze. The casualties numbered from 300 to over 400, mostly women and children.

Gov. Willie Blount (pronounced “Wylie”) of Tennessee was quick to react and the state legislature authorized him to summon 5,000 troops to defend the Mississippi Territory. Major General of the Tennessee Militia, Andrew Jackson, who was recovering from a near fatal brawl in Nashville, was given command of the volunteer forces.

On Oct. 7, with his arm in a sling, Jackson and his second in command, Gen. John Coffee, departed Camp Blount in Fayetteville. They made their way south and later erected Fort Strother along the Coosa River in present day Ragland.

The Creek War came to a close following the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814, and many familiar names of places in Alabama came about as result of this often-forgotten war, such as: Moulton and Somerville and the counties of Blount, Coffee, Jackson, Lauderdale, Montgomery and Wilcox.

St. Clair beginnings

Among the brave Tennessee volunteers were John Looney and his son Henry, of Maury County. During the war, they had come through this land, helped construct Fort Strother, and fell in love with the beautiful country that surrounded them during the campaign.

In the aftermath, father and son returned to Maury County and in 1816, John began selling his land. In late 1817, he, his wife Rebecca, and their children left Maury County, bound for the land described by Julia Tutwiler, as “Goodlier than the land that Moses climbed lone Nebo’s mount to see.”

Trusting in the Lord with their hearts and leaning not on their own understandings, the John Looney Family settled in Beaver Valley in 1818, and the site they chose was near a sparkling spring, not far from Little Beaver Creek. They soon began work on their house and were finished by the winter.

The new spring brought with it swarms of mosquitoes, illness from fever and chills and a flooded home. A new home place was found nearby, and the house was moved to higher ground where it has stood ever since.

John Looney became a prominent leader in the young St. Clair County, serving as a justice of the peace and foreman of the first jury. After his death in 1827, Henry became head of the family and married Jane Ash, the daughter of Ashville’s namesake John Ash, on Oct. 25, 1838. Henry departed this life in 1876 at the age of 78 and was interred at Liberty Cemetery in Odenville. Jane moved to Texas around 1888 to live with her son George and died there in 1900, aged 85. She was laid to rest in City Greenwood Cemetery in Weatherford, Texas.

Henry’s siblings were Jack (married to Lucinda Cooper), Asa (Joyce Cooper), Absolom (Nancy Chenault), Sophia (John Cooper), Elizabeth (Wylie Yarbrough), Isaac (Elizabeth Hammond), Wylie (Laurinda Little) and Melinda (Hugh Cooper).

The Looney House, with all its history and dovetailed, heart of pine logs, was sold in the late 1800s by D.W. Looney to John and Eliza Lonnergan. It remained in the Lonnergan Family until it came into the possession of Col. and Mrs. Joseph R. Creitz.

The house, once the perfect picture of pioneer architecture and Southern resolve, was now without a roof, missing many of its window panes and overgrown with honeysuckle. In March 1972, the couple offered the house to the county or any historical organization that would vow to restore the property.

Historical Society steps in to save structure

On April 8, 19 people attended the founding meeting of the St. Clair Historical Society at the Odenville Community Center. On Sept. 15, the house and property were given to the St. Clair Historical Society for $10 and by the end of the society’s first year, its membership measured over 500.

Mrs. Mattie Lou (Teague) Crow valiantly led from the front and organized the restoration of the home. A cedar shake roof was installed, window panes were replaced, and the grounds were cleared, with much appreciation being extended to the Ashville Garden Club and the John Pope Eden Career Technical Center.

The front porch was restored by Jack Bowling of Rainbow City for the cost of around $2,600 and it was said, “It’s as near to the original as we could build it,” as a great deal of research was conducted to determine how the first porch looked.

The rock steps, quarried out of Beaver Mountain and hand hewn, date back to the 1860s and were donated from the old Cox house in Beaver Valley. Wild roses and four o’clocks were planted. For the inside of the house, Miss Nan Young made the rugs and Miss Nellie Patterson made the briar-stitched curtains.

Furnishings and decorations were donated from treasures found in the homes of many St. Clair Countians: Karl Scott donated a pegged rope bed; Ann Riser gave a lovely chest of drawers which opens into a desk; Elizabeth Teague donated a period rocker; and the Rankin Family gave a beautiful wardrobe.

Howard Hill gifted a set of candle molds, which belonged to his grandfather, and his wife, Elizabeth, the great-granddaughter of county pioneers Littleton Yarbrough and Reuben Phillips, donated a reel, for arranging thread, from her great-grandfather Reuben Phillips’ plantation and a butter mold used by her mother, Sallie (Phillips) Hodges.

The first of the St. Clair Historical Society’s Annual Fall Festivals took place over the weekend of Nov. 23 and 24, 1974, and the grand opening of the museum was attended by a crowd of over 2,000. The ribbon cutting was officiated by Dr. James McClendon, the father of Sen. Jim McClendon, and music was provided by the Springville and St. Clair County High School bands.

The Looney House was soon added to National Register of Historic Places and on Feb. 15, 1975, a certificate, signed by Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace, recognizing this achievement was presented to the St. Clair Historical Society.

In 2018, descendants of John and Rebecca Looney came together from all over Alabama, as well as Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Utah in a homecoming celebration as part of the St. Clair County Bicentennial. 

Until a tragic fire destroyed it on Aug. 6, 2022, it was considered one of the oldest-standing, two-story, dogtrot houses in the state of Alabama.